The states they're in

Where are the most millionaires? Which city is set to open 46 shopping malls? Which state makes more motorcycles than anywhere else in the world? And where's the launch pad for India's mission to the moon? Tom Templeton puts modern India on the map.

· An estimated 25,000 debt-ridden farmers have committed suicide since GM seeds were introduced in 1997. In 2004, the local BJP party was voted out as punishment for its pro-GM stance

State: BiharCapital: Patna

India's poorest state is studded with Buddhist monuments, including Bodh Gaya, where Lord Buddha attained enlightenment 2,500 years ago. Dalits - the untouchable caste - make up 15 per cent of the population

· There are 14 murders a day here, the majority being Dalits killed by landlords' private militias

State: ChhattisgarhCapital: Raipur

The richest state in mineral wealth, from coal and iron ore to gold and diamonds

· The state has a large number of armed insurgent communists (Naxalites) who this year have blown up and beheaded dozens of civilians and even police

· With a higher proportion of women than in any other states (in a country where female babies are still often seen as a weak investment, and killed), they command more power than elsewhere - to the extent that women can choose and even terminate a marriage at will

State: DelhiCapital: New Delhi

The nation's capital city and the seat of central government boasts 60,000 monuments from the numerous empires - Gupta, Mughal, British - that have made it their capital over the past two millennia

· Delhi's workforce increased by 50 per cent during the Nineties

· Metropolitan Delhi's infrastructure hasn't coped with the phenomenally rapid urbanisation of the past decade. Its population now stands at more than 20m

State: GoaCapital: Panaji

The beaches and jungles of India's richest state attract 12 per cent of all foreign tourist arrivals to the country

State: GujaratCapital: Gandhinagar

Gandhi's home state, Gujarat is the second most industrialised (with 20 per cent of the nation's industrial output - agriculture, petrol, cement, diamonds) as well as the most fundamentalist

· In 2002, an estimated 2,000-2,500 people (mainly Muslims) were killed in Hindu/Muslim violence sparked over the Ayodhya shrine, where a temple and mosque both existed. According to Human Rights Watch: 'Communal violence against Muslims in Gujarat is intimately connected to a rise of Hindu nationalism in the country and the state'

State: HaryanaCapital: Chandigarh

An agricultural state, home to Maruti Udyog, India's largest automobile manufacturer, and Hero Honda Ltd, the world's largest producer of two-wheelers

State: Himachal PradeshCapital: Shimla

Home to the Dalai Lama, who fled here from neighbouring Tibet in 1959, and now a focal point for Buddhists all over the world

State: Jammu and KashmirSummer capital: SrinagarWinter capital: Jammu

India's portion of Kashmir, the region of mountains and lakes dubbed 'heaven on earth', now better known for the fierce territorial dispute between India, Pakistan and, to a lesser extent, China. India and Pakistan have fought four wars over the territory: in 1947, 1965, 1971 and 1999. An armed insurgency has triggered an escalation in terrorism and police brutality

· The majority of India's 115 nuclear warheads face Pakistan across this border. India tested its first - 'Smiling Buddha' - in 1974. Last year the US officially recognised India as 'a responsible state with advanced nuclear technology', seen as the first step towards entry of the five-strong authorised nuclear club, closed since China joined in the Sixties

State: JharkhandCapital: Ranchi

Home to the Shikharji, the most sacred pilgrimage site for the Jains - a religion that advocates chastity and truth, and discourages worldly possessions

State: KarnatakaCapital: Bangalore

Famous for its ancient temples and mosques and now home to the IT/call-centre capital of India, Bangalore - the heart of the country's hi-tech revolution. The average IT wage in Bangalore (renamed Bengaluru this month) grew 13.5 per cent in 2003

· Twenty of the 27 districts in Karnataka have a 'high-risk' prevalence of HIV/Aids. India has between 5m and 10m infected, and the world's second-highest infection rate after South Africa. A 2002 report for the CIA warned that unless India tackles the problem on a war footing, there could be around 20m cases of HIV by 2010

· India's space programme, based in Bangalore, will launch an unmanned mission to the moon in 2008

State: KeralaCapital: Trivandrum

A Marxist state with a 91 per cent literacy rate, compared with a national average of only 65 per cent. The state is also ranked best for health and law and order

State: Madhya PradeshCapital: Bhopal

The geographical heartland of the country, Madhya Pradesh has the highest percentage of forest in India, which is home to 22 per cent of the world's tiger population

State: MaharashtraCapital: Mumbai

The most industrialised state in India. Mumbai is the world's fifth-most populous metropolitan area, and India's capital of commerce, corruption, cricket, and the Hindi film industry

· India had 13,000 new millionaires in 2005 - Mumbai is home to more than all the other Indian cities put together

· Bajaj Auto, in Pune, is India's largest rickshaw manufacturer, producing more than 1m vehicles a year

State: OrissaCapital: Bhubaneswar

Considered to be a neglected state: only 20 per cent of the road network is sealed. In rural areas more than 65 per cent of the population have no access to safe drinking water

· In July, the worst floods in India in the past two hundred years devastated 100,000 homes, damaged four million acres of farmland and killed more than 1,000 people

State: PunjabCapital: Chandigarh

Impoverished during partition, Punjab - the only state where Sikhism is the predominant religion - is now the most affluent, producing agricultural equipment, sports goods and millions of bicycles

· The current prime minister, Manmohan Singh, is the first Sikh to lead the country

State: RajasthanCapital: Jaipur

The picture-book face of India, loved by foreign celebrities. Tourist numbers to this state of Moghul forts, camel fairs, tigers and lakes have been skyrocketing - 1.2m visited last year, more than double the number three years ago

State: SikkimCapital: Gangtok

Nestled in the mountains, India's least-populous state has six official languages: English, Bhutia, Nepali, Lepcha, Limbu and Hindi

State: Tamil NaduCapital: Chennai

Cradle of Dravidian culture, Tamil Nadu is predominantly vegetarian. The capital, Chennai, is known as the 'Detroit of South Asia' for its automobile industry

· Kollywood, the Tamil film industry based in Chennai, is India's second largest after Bollywood, producing more than 150 films a year. Many senior politicians here, including the current chief minister, M Karunanidhi, started out in Kollywood

State: UttaranchalCapital: Dehra Dun

A land of mountains and glaciers where the Vedas, Shastras and the Mahabharata were composed. The region looks set to develop a prominent herbal pharmaceutical industry owing to an abundant supply of medicinal plants

· With seventeen hydroelectric projects, the state is a key source of water in a country which has 16 per cent of the world's population but only 4 per cent of its water

State: Uttar PradeshCapital: Lucknow

The most populous state, with 166m people. The Ganges, sacred river of Hinduism, runs through it, and four of the religion's seven holy towns are here, including the holiest, Varanasi. Often referred to as the 'cow belt' or 'Hindi belt', it has dominated Indian politics since independence, producing more than half of India's prime ministers

· The largest concentration (30.7m) of India's Muslims live here. There are 180m Muslims in India - the third-largest number after Indonesia and Pakistan. Muslims have the highest growth rate of any religious population in India (an estimated 36 per cent in the Nineties)

State: West BengalCapital: Kolkata

The highest population density of India, with 767 people per square kilometre. The Indian half of Bengal split off at Independence along with East Pakistan, which then became Bangladesh in 1971. The cultural centre of India, its capital Kolkata is the intellectual heartbeat of the nation, famous for its writers, poets, artists, spiritualists, social reformers, freedom fighters and revolutionaries

· In Kolkata, 46 new shopping malls will be built by 2010

States: Seven Sisters

The collective name for the seven northeastern states of India: Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. Birthplace of polo, home of the tea industry, and struggling with several insurgencies by indigenous populations seeking independence from India

The diaspora

America There are now an estimated 2.5m Indian Americans. One-third of the engineers in working in Silicon Valley are of Indian origin, and one in every nine Indians in the United States is a millionaire, comprising 10 per cent of all America's millionaires

Britain The one million-strong Indo-British community is in its third generation. British Indians are, on average, better educated and more economically successful than the white English population

Middle East An estimated four million Non-Resident Indians live in the Arabian Gulf states. Mainly skilled and semi-skilled contract employees, they send $6bn a year back to their families in India

Malaysia The 2.7 million Non-Resident Indians who originally moved to Malaysia were plantation workers, but they now hold some of the highest government posts and own some of the largest companies in the country.